Front end covers for vehicles, provide extra protection from paint damage caused by flying stones, chips and other airborne debris, while driving. They also provide a distinctive appearance, which tends to set one car apart from another, and allows the owner to customize their vehicle.
Traditionally, a front end cover, or "bra" is made of leather or flexible plastic, such as vinyl. The front end covers are held in place with straps, tie downs, springs, grommets, clips or other apparatus, which are used to hold the covers in place under the considerable wind forces generated when a vehicle is traveling at high speed.
If the front end cover is not tightly held in place, the wind may buffet the cover, causing the means of attachment to scrape across the painted finish of the vehicle, eventually damaging the paint. Dust and small particles adhere to the cover, providing an abrasive contact between the cover and the vehicle paint, as the cover flaps in the wind. Where the cover is subjected to moisture, such as during rain or snow, the moisture often remains trapped beneath the cover, providing an area of high humidity beneath the cover which tends to leach and otherwise discolor the painted finish. The complicated nature of attachment of a conventional vehicle bra is time consuming to install or remove, which discourages removal of the bra after each rain, which should be done to properly dry the bra.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,546 is representative of front end shields for vehicles, which are presently in use, and which require straps, hooks or other apparatus to secure the shield to the vehicle wheel well.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,874 discloses a magnetically attachable sign for vehicles, having small trough indentations to avoid air pockets or bulges upon installation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,660 discloses a laminated liner material formed with a top surface of abrasion resistant material and a bottom surface of flexible plastic impregnated with a magnetic material.